Divine Intervention
by snowstargirl
Summary: Grief can be overwhelming, but miracles happen… LDD in a way.


**Title: Divine Intervention**

_Summary:_ Grief can be overwhelming, but miracles happen…

_Rating:_ K+

_Characters: _Jess and Leslie

_Disclaimer:_ None of the characters from _Bridge to Terabithia_ belong to me. They belong to Katherine Paterson, Disney, and Walden Media (and perhaps other companies as well). I'm only borrowing them. I'm not making any money by writing this story.

_Author's Notes:_ This story begins when Jess learns of Leslie's death. It falls into the critically-rejected, completely overdone "alternate ending" category. Don't get me wrong, I don't think _Bridge to Terabithia_'s ending needed to be changed; it was based on a true story and I think the book needed to unfold as it did. I love the book and its incredible sadness is one of the things that made it stick with me. The sorrow weighed even more heavily upon me when I saw the movie, which brought the level of tragedy and loss to a whole new level… But I really wanted Leslie to live, for Jess' sake, if not for her own. Here is my take on what might have been. (It may be a bit AU… but it's an LDD, so you knew that...)

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Divine Intervention

"They never found the body. That Simmons boy saw it floating down the creek…"

The words echoed in his mind and Jess was screaming, yelling. Louder than he'd ever yelled before. And he was running, running, running, faster than anyone had ever run before, and Brenda and Momma were crying and May Belle was whining and Dad was chasing him but Jess was faster.

"Jess?"

"Leslie?" Unbelievable. There she was, right beside him. She was running too. But now Jess was just as fast as she was and he was running with her.

"Why are we running?" she asked, laughing.

"Because you're dead!" said Jess.

Leslie didn't seem to hear that but Jess didn't care because he and Leslie both must have gone crazy; Leslie was dead and here she was running with him anyway. It started raining again but they didn't stop even when they should have been slipping over tree roots and rotten logs. Jess didn't even know where they were going. And they just kept running and running until he couldn't breathe.

Things moved pretty fast after that. Maybe too fast. Jess' mind was a whirl of color and activity, and they were running faster and faster and he must have tripped over one of those rotten logs because he was falling and twisting and then he was staring up at Leslie and she was laughing at him. And then she wasn't there anymore because he looked at the stupid log and it wasn't a log. Leslie couldn't be above him anymore because she was on the ground in front of him.

Dead.

* * *

There was roaring in his ears and somebody was screaming to wake the dead but Jess ignored it all because he was grabbing Leslie and shaking her and words wouldn't come out of his mouth. She was pale and cold and she was all wet. There was something wrong with her fingers and her neck didn't look right. One of her shoes was gone. Something was telling Jess that he was too late but he didn't think about that. He tried to remember if he knew CPR, but he'd only seen it on TV. It had something to do with kissing and thumping and he tried to do both and it didn't work.

He tried again but Leslie's mouth was so cold and he didn't know where to hit so he was just aiming thumps all over her and she still wasn't breathing so he stood up and kicked her and screamed at her. He knew he shouldn't do that to a girl so he only felt worse, and finally he just fell down beside her and started to cry.

The rain sloshed over them and somehow it was rising; they had to be too close the creek. Jess grabbed Leslie's hands and tried to drag her away so she wouldn't get hurt, but she wouldn't move. He couldn't make himself touch her cold mouth again but he had to try something so he thumped her chest again and he knew she wasn't breathing so he kissed her anyway, and then he was shouting and crying as he beat at Leslie's body. It was getting colder. What was he going to do? He was getting frantic. And then he heard something.

It couldn't be. His stupid CPR couldn't have worked! But there it was again, that faint little cry.

"Jess!" It didn't sound like Leslie at all; it didn't sound loud enough. But it was Leslie, it was Leslie… he could even see her mouth moving now… "Help… Jesse… I can't get up…"

"I'm tryin'!" he shouted.

There was a terrified little gasp and Jess turned around. May Belle. For once in his life he was grateful that she'd followed him.

"May Belle!"

"Why're you yellin' at her?"

"What do you mean? She's hurt!"

"She ain't hurt, Jess. She's all white," said May Belle in a tiny voice. She reached for his hand but he shook her off.

"Shut up, scaredy-cat!" shouted Jess. "You just shut up! You're just a big baby!" May Belle started to cry and he knew he was going to get in trouble but he ignored her. He just kept on hitting Leslie.

"Stop cryin'! Go back to the house. Tell 'em to call the hospital."

"The hospital?" May Belle squeaked. "Jess! She's dead! I told you-"

"Now!" He would have jumped up to yell at her but it would have meant letting go of Leslie. What if she got colder while he was messing around? "Just do it, May Belle! Stop asking me questions!"

Tears rolled down his sister's cheeks. She was still acting so much like a baby that he wanted to scream at her again, but she turned and ran.

It felt like hours went by. Jess didn't say anything, he only stared at Leslie. She was sitting up now. She was talking and talking to him about everything in the world, and then for no reason at all she stopped. Jess looked around them.

They were in the middle of the trees and there were logs and underbrush everywhere. Jess had got through it, so maybe the paramedics could get through too, but May Belle was only a little girl. How was May Belle going to show them how to get to him and Leslie? Jess had another thought. How had she gotten to them the first time? How was she going to get home? But he didn't have much time to think after that. All the craziness had finally caught up to him. He was so scared and sick that he just threw up.

And then his head stopped spinning. He looked at Leslie and she wasn't looking back. She wasn't sitting up. She _was _white. He picked up her wrist and there wasn't any pulse no matter how many times he felt for it, and he knew May Belle was right. None of it had been real. Leslie was really, really dead. For an awful moment he wanted to be too. And then he wondered what was in his hand that was so cold and still. He looked down and let go of Leslie's freezing cold wrist and he just wanted to get away from her. This was not Leslie.

"Please, Jesus," he whispered. "She believed in you. She told me so. _Wake her up…_"

Jess was dizzy and there were spots in his eyes, and when he tried to scream again everything went black.

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Jess was dreaming. He had to be. He was staring at Leslie. She was very healthy and very much alive, grinning at him over the shoulder of the paramedic she was trying to convince that she was all right.

"Child, you almost _drowned_. Ten hours ago. You are not all right."

"I told you. I did drown. And Jesus woke me up."

"He woke you up. Why?"

"Jess asked him to. And he did. Just like with Lazarus in Jess' Bible."

Jess went very pale. Leslie most certainly had not been alive when he'd been praying.

"What did Jesus say to you, then?"

Leslie smiled. "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"

The paramedic looked shocked. Then he looked angry. "My brother died last year and I asked God a hundred times to bring him back. He's still dead. Why's that?"

"I don't know," said Leslie. "I'm sorry. But he did for me."

Jess woke up.

* * *

He was shaken awake by his dad. He was sitting up facing May Belle, who was watching him anxiously… and Leslie. She was very healthy and very much alive, grinning at him as she swung her ankles over the edge of a stretcher. He blinked. She still only had the one shoe. She looked exactly as she had in his dream, but he knew he was awake now; the sights and sounds were all too real, and her parents were on either side of her, hugging her and crying. May Belle climbed into his lap and he could feel her real and solid as she hugged him, but he pinched himself to make sure.

"Ouch."

Leslie laughed, and her laughter was the most wonderful sound Jess had ever heard. "They don't believe me," she mouthed to Jess. Jess' head was spinning again, but he was grinning. He looked around to see who else was there. He sucked in his breath. Maybe he hadn't been dreaming. There was the paramedic who had argued with Leslie, shouting at another.

"What do you mean, what's wrong with her? She drowned! A boy saw her face down in the creek." He pointed at Jess and May Belle. "Those kids saw her _dead_."

"Well she looks fine. She sounds fine. I'm telling you, this girl didn't drown."

Leslie was watching all this with a fascination that told Jess she was going to write a story about it when they were back home. As soon as May Belle and his dad let him go he ran to her. Her parents made room for him before they went to calm the paramedics.

Jess' eyes were wild as he hopped onto the stretcher beside his best friend. She had been dead less than an hour ago. He had seen her; touched her. She had been cold and lifeless and still and _white_. Leslie started to say something but he was too busy looking at her to understand her. She wasn't white anymore, but he touched her arm to see if she was still cold. She wasn't, but he jumped anyway. It suddenly struck him that while everyone else was still wet, he and Leslie were warm and dry. "What happened after I passed out?"

She was looking back at him with clear, bright eyes that spoke of things beyond the world. Something had definitely happened to Leslie Burke. "Well?" he demanded, thinking of his dream. "Did Jesus raise you from the dead or something?" He suddenly felt that high in the sky feeling, like he could do anything in the world. Just like when he'd swung over the rope the first time, only stronger.

Leslie's smile grew wider. "Yes. He did."

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**Fin.**

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_Additional Author's Notes: _

If anyone was wondering, what Jesus said to Leslie was from John 11:40 in the Bible.

And Jess wasn't dreaming in the second-to-last section. :)


End file.
